Seoul International Photography Festival

Last weekend Mali and I went to the Seoul International Photography Festival ( or SIPF).  We actually went as a part of the Photography Meet Up group online.  

It was an architecturally interesting building in the Jamsil area.  

 

 

Here is a shot of the group meandering around the exhibit. 

The exhibit had a focus on photoshopped photography though certainly not all of the art was like that.  There were three that I liked the best: 

Creepy little beautiful kids eating cake.  

This one was really cool because all of the photo negatives weaved together except for the man in the middle.  It's an interesting concept and a powerful image. 

Another awesome one was this strip image thing.  

Here it is in sequence, closer and closer: 

After the museum we ate sushi at the top floor of the Lotte Department Store in Jamsil.  It's a good thing I love sushi! 

Conveyor belt sushi > regular sushi.

Mali & her SLP work friend. 

  

Board games and Buffet

2 weeks ago... 

First I had tea at this place in Yeongtong.  Super cute and I have no idea what it is called but my only complaint is that it didn't have outlets for my computer.

 

The tea shop has relaxing yet vibrant colors and comfortable velvet couches.  It was pretty empty but I swear we weren't the only ones there. 

Then we played board games at this place:

If you can read Korea you can see it says "bo-duh-geh-aim"

 You can't see them all since there is a whole other wall, but they had a lot of games, both English and Korean games.  Also, I swear this place was not as empty as the picture makes it look.  We enjoyed playing Jenga and also some random game that we picked where you try to make train tracks across the United States.  Surprisingly it was the most fun even though we later found out we played it wrong the whole time. 

After board games it was time for dinner.  We went to a buffet place that someone knew about on the 8th  floor of a building nearby.  It cost about $20 or so, but it was an all you can eat buffet.  Since there were 8 of us 1 group made a seafood stew and the other made a meat stew.  

Here is the seafood section of the buffet:

 

Raw seafood ewww.

My second plate looked like this:

  Nom nom sushi.  Also pineapple. Fried stuff.

But my personal favorite: sweet rice balls.   I could eat a whole lot of those suckers.  

EDIT: I found these are called 경단 (gyeongdan) or "Sweet Rice Ball".  They are made by kneading glutinous rice powder with hot water, shaping into balls, boiling in hot water, and coating with various sweet powders such as cinnamon, black sesame, or soybean powder.

major yum.

Internet Fail

It's been a while since I have updated my blog -- quite unlike me.   The reason for this is that since coming to Korea I had successfully been "borrowing" someone else's internet, but now my connection is gone.  I'm in the process of ordering new internet but I haven't gotten it yet.  Anyway, I shall update with pictures again soon. 

My weeks have been a combination of busy and totally empty.  I have spent a ridiculous amount of time sleeping and watching NCIS on television.  Otherwise, I am in school preparing and teaching my Winter Camp which is going well for the most part.  

Well,  I am off to a photography exhibit right now in Seoul.  Until next time.. 

Week in Photos

Life, unscripted.  In photo-form. 

 

books, indian food, and hugs

Last Saturday Jennifer and I went to Itaewon to check out What The Book again.  (see part 4 of this entry to read about the bookstore).  

In my last entry I noted that it was smaller than I had expected it to be, but you can see here that they really maximize their space effectively.  Check out that wall of books!  

I bought two books, Blessings, by Anna Quindlen, because I love everything I've ever read by her, and The Girls, by Lori Lansens.  I had never heard of this novel, nor had I heard of the author, but I picked it up on a whim and found myself drawn to it immediately.  Before I start those books though I need to read my new book club book, Things Fall Apart.   

After the bookstore Jennifer and I wandered up and down the streets of Itaewon in search of food to eat.  Things in that area are surprisingly expensive and nothing we found was exactly right.  Finally, when we were at about our point of desperation, a man handing out flyers in the street came to our rescue with an all-you-can-eat Indian buffet for about w10,000 (I can't recall exactly).

The restaurant is tucked away off the main drag, then left by a convenience store, right down an alley and then left again down a little side street.  Even with a map on the flyer, we never would have made it save for the restaurant's owner who was staked out by the first alley waiting for his customer prey to hopelessly wander around searching for his place.

 

The food was decent for a buffet and if I was in the area I'd go there again though I certainly wouldn't make a special trip for it.  Although I prefer soft and fluffy naan, the thin crunchy kind that they serve there was good enough.  Jennifer said the lamb was delicious, but I refused to eat it on principle.  I liked the samosas because they were bland and not spicy, which is precisely the reason Jennifer didn't like them.

After dinner we took a short taxi ride to Myong-dong for some night shopping.  I think that place is always crowded!

A maddening sea of people!  

It's wonderful. 

Free Hugs! 

PS: Check out the girl in slippers!

 

Twenty-Ten

So the new year is already upon us.  My new year's eve was fine but nothing really all that spectacular.  I more enjoyed shopping in Myeong-dong and eating Italian food with my (hopefully) new friend Nicole than the party near Jamsil later that evening.  

One of my New Year's Resolutions is to go shopping more often.  Now, I do understand that this is a rather strange resolution but really it stems from the fact that I should make a greater attempt at being a) less frugal, and b) more fashionable.  I packed only plain/simple clothes when I came to Korea in an effort to make the most of my wardrobe.  But now that I'm here I need to start expanding again.  So enter resolution shop! 

Incidentally, my other resolution is to keep better track of my finances... 

I couldn't find my little party camera and didn't want to lug around my big one at the club so there aren't many pictures of me on New Years and they certainly aren't very good.  But here are two anyway. 

 

Happy New 

Year!